Olivarez wants 4 Chinese behind illegal coronavirus clinic deported

MANILA, Philippines — Parañaque City Mayor Edwin Olivarez has urged the Bureau of Immigration to sue and deport the Chinese nationals who operated an underground clinic at a subdivision that was raided last week.

In a statement on Wednesday, Olivarez also asked the National Capital Region Police Office to deploy more men inside Multinational Village after he learned that some security guards supposedly helped the suspects bring in personal protective equipment and medical supplies.

He said the city government would support the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in filing criminal charges against the operators of the establishment that offered treatment to Chinese nationals suspected of having the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Agents of the NBI-Task Force Against Illegal Drugs (TFAID) raided the clinic found inside a house on Timothy Street on May 29. They seized boxes of dextrose stands, swab kits, face masks and gloves, boxes of Chinese-labeled medicines for respiratory diseases, as well as condoms and medicines used to treat sexually transmitted diseases.

Lawyer Ross Jonathan Galicia, NBI-TFAID chief, said the clinic catered only to Chinese nationals working for Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogo).

Arrested during the NBI operation were four Chinese nationals identified as Liang Junshai, Pingqiang Long, Yanyun Jiang and Tang Hong Shan who operated the clinic which did not have a permit. They also practiced medicine without a license and prescribed drugs not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

“If one of their patients has the virus, it’s really very dangerous. We do not know if their medical conditions were properly addressed. They may possibly have transmitted the virus to others,” Galicia said in a TV interview.

In a statement on Tuesday, the board of the Multinational Village Homeowners Association Inc. denied that the house was a makeshift COVID-19 hospital.

“For the record, there is no such thing in Multinational Village,” it said, adding that the house was also targeted previously for allegedly being a prostitution den.